Great news for Michael McDowell's 2012 racing!

[4WideRacing]

McDowell says he'll be back in the #18 car in 2012 for five Nationwide races with plans for him to race at Road America, Watkins Glen, Michigan and Iowa twice. On the Sprint Cup side, McDowell says he'll be back full-time with Phil Parsons Racing (formerly HP Racing). He isn't sure what number he'll have this year, but he does know that they are making a change to Ford this coming season, powered by Roush-Yates engines. And they have found enough sponsorship to race the first five races of the season, rather than resorting to a start and park situation.(Yahoo Sports)(1-19-2012)

Great to see JGR give Michael another small chance. Does Phil Parsons change his race team name every year? Sad for me to see another team switch from Toyota to Ford but it should be a great step for these teams! Great to see the increased sponsorship that they can actually do some full races!

Spoiler

So much for Toyota buying up all of Nascar

 

[evan07]

I really hope they do run the first 5 races as long as they can.

 

[Carl Robinson]

Yeah it is upseting to see them switch from Toyota, but then again TRD is only backing the top three this year MWR and JGR (JTG would be the third) which in total is about 7 cars in the field getting fresh stuff on the cup side of things. Im sure running Ford is cheaper by a long shot. Im very glad to see Mcdowell back in the 18 hes had great runs.

 

[Harry Nurpplez]

Both of the teams(Parsons and Germain) switching to ford will only be better for them.

 

[B.McKeever]

Parsons was buying cars from MWR, as was Germain Racing.

Michael Waltrip added the third team which, my guess, meant that the cars Germain & Parsons were purchasing are now going to JTG which kicked Germain & Parsons out of the mix.

 

[ModSquadRacing]

I just heard that Phil Parsons merged his operation with Whitney Motorsports and they will field the #98 with McDowell driving.

Seems like a good move for two small teams like that getting together. Phil has been going at it for several years now with little to no luck, but cars fast enough to make the show. And Whitney seemed to have a pretty good foundation in place.

Hopefully it works out and they can find some decent funding. I'll be pulling for them.

 

[Jbm93]

As much as I wish them the best, and as much as I like Mcdowell, I have no faith in the management of HP Racing (or whatever they're called now). To be in a premier series that long, qualify for so many races, have such a marketable driver (watch Mcdowell in interviews, he's gold), and have such little in the way of sponsorship is profound. No well managed team would have that little to show for their efforts.

 

[ModSquadRacing]

McDowell was just on 'Dialed In' a little while ago with Claire B. to share some good news.

What was kind of funny to me was when I first heard about Phil Parson's merging with Dusty Whitney and running the #98, I wondered why that number. It immediatly made me think of Mike Curb and how that has always been 'his' number and special to him.

Well I guess I wasnt too far off because the reason for #98 is a sponsorship deal with Mike Curb/Curb Records. They didnt go real in depth about details with the sponsorship, only that they are still looking for some additional funding but they are planning on racing the full season.

Hopefully these guys can get something going and really start to build a team. Phil is a good guy in the racing community, and a smart one as well. His previous (failed) attempts to get a team off the ground are not reflective of anything he did. It was just a product of the ecomony and sponsor climate at this point in time.

Also, the team is going by the name of 'Phil Parsons Racing'.

 

[Cheeze]

As much as I like to hear that teams are planning on going the distance every race, I just don't see it happening for EVERY team. I mean, there can't be that much new money flowing in the economy to have 43 funded teams when we only had 35-ish last season.

 

[4WideRacing]

That's great that another former S&P team plans on racing the whole races this year! Hopefully there will be more small teams pooling their resources together to help run races instead of S&Ping.

 

[Jonathan Patten]

History for for the team that now drives the #98!
2009: MSRP Motorsports (#66, Started the season with Terry Labonte and Window World and finished with Dave Blaney)
2010: PRISM Motorsports (#55 with Michael McDowell and Mike Bliss ,#66 with Dave Blaney and Scott Riggs
2011: HP Racing (#66 full sesason with Michael McDowell, mostly S&P with a few exceptions)
2012: Phil Parsons Racing (#98 Ford with Michael McDowell to start the season.)
Really glad to see Michael McDowell get a ride in some good equipment-- I follow him on Twitter and I write him occasionally; he's a really good and nice guy, and I only hope the best for him!

(All this is based on my memory and a bit of reading I've been doing on the team, I don't know how accurate the information is.)